I am not new to biking, started in 1984 with my first real road bike but have been away since the 90's. Back then, there was either no tech, or I had not heard of it yet. My first bike had clips (those metal cages around your foot)! My wife worked in a bike shop, rode from Canada to Central America on a bike and was a competitive cyclocross rider in the 90's also. For more than 20 years our cleats gathered dust. My wife & I jumped back into cycling by joining the Ride Across Wisconsin on our e-bikes. I guess we were the first ones ever to do it - covering 235 miles in 2 days. It gave us the confidence to try road biking again. And on that ride, every other person had either a Garmin or Wahoo. Radar too! I didn't even know that existed. So, I looked into Garmin, was ... MoreI am not new to biking, started in 1984 with my first real road bike but have been away since the 90's. Back then, there was either no tech, or I had not heard of it yet. My first bike had clips (those metal cages around your foot)! My wife worked in a bike shop, rode from Canada to Central America on a bike and was a competitive cyclocross rider in the 90's also. For more than 20 years our cleats gathered dust. My wife & I jumped back into cycling by joining the Ride Across Wisconsin on our e-bikes. I guess we were the first ones ever to do it - covering 235 miles in 2 days. It gave us the confidence to try road biking again. And on that ride, every other person had either a Garmin or Wahoo. Radar too! I didn't even know that existed. So, I looked into Garmin, was almost set to buy a 1030, when I noticed the 1040 solar was out. A little more looking and a strong reco from a guy I used to ride with in the 90's and reconnected with on RAW, and I was pretty sure the 1040 was the way to go. Upon using it for a few rides now, I feel like the interface is very similar to using any touch screen device. Very contrary to a hiking Garmin I bought back in 2015 - another story in frustration altogether. But the interface on the 1040 was simple and works. Swiping left or right, down, etc. to reveal different screens was easy. We joined a bike club, pinned a few rides on Ride with GPS from their club page and they seamlessly connected with Garmin Connect and appeared on my 1040. Simple. Pick a ride, start a ride, all the sensors reporting in - cadence, heart rate, speed - awesome. I adjusted some of the data screens - also very easy since there are easy to follow Garmin help pages online or youtube videos that walk you thru anything you want to do. So now I have modified the data on screens I want to use, can operate this thing right out of the box without mods FYI, have the radar connected and reporting in "car back" essentially all the time. Super awesome. The screen is VERY readable in all lighting conditions. And to put icing on the cake, it automatically sends ride beacons to my contacts on start and automatically syncs my rides to Strava on completion! Highly Highly recommend. Pricey - but does everything I could ever imagine, and look forward to getting more into training rides and plans. So much functionality yet to discover.

My Edge 1030 which I've had for some years, was beginning to fail, needing constant restarts, failing to work in cold weather, sometimes the battery wouldn't last the ride, so all in all the unit was generally no longer to be relied upon. Due to this experience I was a bit skeptical of getting another Garmin, but finally after a lot of research I opted for the Solar. I'm very happy with it so far. Much easier to program the screens, the battery life especially, is outstanding. My favorite thing is seeing a depiction of the route I'm about to ride on the opening screen, I no longer have to scroll through the lists of saved courses to find and select the right ride. The graphics are generally easier to read and I also like the enhancement to the rear radar alerts. The ... MoreMy Edge 1030 which I've had for some years, was beginning to fail, needing constant restarts, failing to work in cold weather, sometimes the battery wouldn't last the ride, so all in all the unit was generally no longer to be relied upon. Due to this experience I was a bit skeptical of getting another Garmin, but finally after a lot of research I opted for the Solar. I'm very happy with it so far. Much easier to program the screens, the battery life especially, is outstanding. My favorite thing is seeing a depiction of the route I'm about to ride on the opening screen, I no longer have to scroll through the lists of saved courses to find and select the right ride. The graphics are generally easier to read and I also like the enhancement to the rear radar alerts. The one piece that is missing, and why at one point I considered the Hammerhead very strongly, is the ability to see the profile of a climb when you're not following a preselected route. I would also have like a stronger indication of the next turn, on our night gravel rides it's a bit hard to see what's coming up because the text and the direction arrow is rather small. Generally I'm delighted with the new unit, and it seems like the integration with the Connect app is much better. I often had to restart the 1030 over and over again, turn bluetooth on and off on the phone and endure a lot of frustration trying to get it to synch. The App sees the 1040 almost immediately which is much better. All in all, so far, a great product.

I live in Central Idaho and often cycle, ski and paddle solo off the cell phone grid. Accordingly, I sought a cycling specific computer with off-grid live tracking and map navigation. After researching various Garmin products, and calling Garmin Customer Support, I purchased an In-Reach Mini2 and an Edge 1040. The Mini2 provides the off-grid live tracking as well as off-grid texting to family and friends, and SOS to emergency services. After initial setup, I did call Garmin Customer Support to complete the integration and syncing of both devices with each other, with the Garmin apps (2), and with my laptop. In addition, I use Strava, so I had to get both devices set up to report activities to Strava, create routes, and then upload routes to the Edge 1040. The Garmin ... MoreI live in Central Idaho and often cycle, ski and paddle solo off the cell phone grid. Accordingly, I sought a cycling specific computer with off-grid live tracking and map navigation. After researching various Garmin products, and calling Garmin Customer Support, I purchased an In-Reach Mini2 and an Edge 1040. The Mini2 provides the off-grid live tracking as well as off-grid texting to family and friends, and SOS to emergency services. After initial setup, I did call Garmin Customer Support to complete the integration and syncing of both devices with each other, with the Garmin apps (2), and with my laptop. In addition, I use Strava, so I had to get both devices set up to report activities to Strava, create routes, and then upload routes to the Edge 1040. The Garmin Customer Support rep was absolutely awesome; he helped me through the process, and then we tested all the integration across devices and platforms. Once I understood the difference between Glances and Widgets on the Edge, I added a Widget screen for the In-Reach Mini2 so now I can operate the Mini2 through the Edge provided the Mini2 is turned on. This works seamlessly! Although I wish there was a single cycling specific computer with In-Reach capability, the combination of both units works well.The Edge 1040 is very capable, although I don't use all the power and training functions. The screen is sharp, and it's easy to swipe pages from stats to map to profile to etc. All these pages (glances?) are customizable (data fields/screen). I'm quite pleased.Suggestion for Garmin: please include 2 inserts and 2 mounts in the Bundle package so that the unit can be installed on at least 2 bikes. Also, the rubber protector should also come with the bundle, and not require a separate cost and order.Cool stuff, and it's now much safer to ride off grid.